800's On The Track and The Red Wine Theory

I have really been enjoying the track lately now that the snow is all gone. There is something about the track that you can see defined distances in front of you that you know exactly where your goal is to stop running or stop running hard.

So this morning was a 15 min easy warmup, then 6 x (800 hard, 400 easy) with a 10 min cool down.

My 800's came out as:
Interval 1: 3:26, avg HR 158, max 171
Interval 2: 3:26, avg HR 167, max 173
Interval 3: 3:25, avg HR 169, max 174
Interval 4: 3:20, avg HR 171, max 177
Interval 5: 3:19, avg HR 171, max 178
Interval 6: 3:17, avg HR 172, max 177
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/72098083

So, um, if I did 4 more of those, would that qualify for a Yasso 800 workout? You have to do 10 of them, right? This was a great workout! By the time I got home I knocked off 8 miles. I couldn't believe 8 miles went by so quickly!

So last night I polished off half a bottle of some yummy Cabernet Sauvignon. I was feeling pretty good :) The night before I ran that training half marathon in Central Park I had two awesome glasses of Malbec (my new favorite wine).

What am I getting at?

Seems like getting buzzed off of red wine has a pretty positive effect on a run the following morning. When I rode with Kristin @ The Lazy Marathoner a few times last fall, she told me she had a couple glasses of wine the night before she tackled and PR'ed Lake Placid. She was surely onto something!!!

Now despite our small sample size of red wine = good performance, the bigger issue here is that you CAN embellish in the good things in life and still put up a good performance. Yes, you can have your wine and drink it too! Some amateur age groupers see alcohol as the devil and as a negative performance item, but I say screw it!!! Drink your red wine cuz it tastes soooooooooo good! And hey! It might even give you a few good days!!!

And what is even stranger is that I have this strong craving for drinking some Barolo. I don't think I have EVER drank a glass of Barolo, but after reading up on it and it being called "The King of Wine" from Italy, I think a tasting is in order :)
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Gonna mention my "Unusual but VERY EXCITING giveaway" another time. Do you want to win a signed poster of "Rio"? An animated feature film made by yours truly? CLICK HERE to enter!

What is even cooler is that they made a "Rio" float for Carnival this year down in Rio de Janeiro!!! Here are some cools photos of our director, Carlos Saldanha, riding at the head of the float and other shots! So cool!

He is on the left in front of the flag

Isn't that amazing!

Super cool shot!

Look out for a new Angry Birds flair ;)

A Breakthrough Weekend!

First! If you haven't seen or entered my "Unusual But VERY EXCITING Giveaway" yet, please do so! I am giving away a signed "Rio" poster, signed by the folks who made the movie, aka, ME :) You have 4 chances to win it!

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This past weekend was the weekend I had been waiting for all season: The weekend where every workout is an uber success.

Saturday was another 2.5 hour ride followed by a 4 mile brick run. Sunday was a 1:45:00 min run. Lots of volume. So what are the options? 1) Sandbag the ride and brick run to save the legs for the long run? 2) Kill the legs on the ride and brick run and sandbag the long run? OR! 3) Kill your legs on the ride and brick run then murder your legs on the long run?

I went with option #3 :)

I went farther and faster on a hillier and MUCH windier ride than the previous weekend's long ride, ran faster on the brick run, then almost PR'ed my half marathon run on the long run.

It was a good weekend :)

Saturday's ride came out as 50.67 miles in 2:37:10 for a 19.34 mph avg. The wind on the way back was brutal! I was getting blown all over the road and every time a gust would nail me I would scream as loud as I could. The wind was really killing my speed averages, especially on the flats and even on some downhills. Nothing more frustrating then riding downhill and feeling like you are riding through molasses.

So my power average came out as 185 watts with 199 watts normalized. This was vs the previous weekend's ride of 178 watts @ 18.68 mph, but 3+ miles shorter and on a flatter route. Already within a week my body is responding to the long rides and is improving. Not quite there yet on the bike, but getting closer!

By the time I finished the bike, I thought my legs were just toast and that this brick run was going to suuuuuuuuuuuck. So I just started running, keeping an easy-ish pace. My legs responded well! I finished with 4 miles in 30:45 for a 7:41 pace. Splits came out as:
Mile 1: 7:48
Mile 2: 7:42
Mile 3: 7:38
Mile 4: 7:35

Woke up Sunday morning to some fresh-ish feeling legs and ran around Central Park 2X. After ~2.5 miles that rain storm that socked the Northeast got me and it was rainy-city for the next 10.6 miles. I don't mind running in the rain! Some of my best runs have been in the rain because it keeps your body cooled down. I wound up with 13.1 miles in 1:45:45, so 26 secs slower than my half marathon PR. Coach wanted me to run with a heart rate between 150-160 bpm, and I did it with a 155 average. Good to know what that heart rate zone will yield.

My splits came out as (before my GPS distance crapped out on me):
Mile 1: 8:38
Mile 2: 8:06
Mile 3: 8:23
Mile 4: 8:09
Mile 5: 7:53
Mile 6: 7:50
Mile 7: 7:52
Mile 8: 7:48
Mile 9: 8:03
Mile 10: 7:48

Then mile 11 showed a 6:37 pace and I had slowed down by that point so I knew it wasn't tracking distance correctly anymore. Fortunately I know that each loop around the park is 6.05 miles, so once I hit loop #2 @ 12.1 miles, I estimated a 0.5 mile out and 0.5 mile back, which surprisingly was accurate when I checked it on mapmyride.com! I love running around Central Park :)

Last week was some nice, but faster volume, especially on the run:
Swim: 8300 yards
Bike: 90 miles
Run: 36.46 miles

Hope you had a great weekend!

An Unusual but VERY EXCITING Giveaway!

First, I haven't done a giveaway in a looooong time.

And!

Second, for those of you who don't know what I do for a living to pay for my triathlon drug addiction, I make animated movies. More specifically I put hair, fur, feathers, leaves, and grass onto digital animated characters, trees, and landscapes. Wha? You ask? Yes, I am a professional pet groomer and lawn mower......on the computer.

Well! Our next movie, "Rio" is coming out in less than 6 weeks on April 15th!!!! So exciting!!!

So as part of the gigantic marketing machine to spread the word of this movie to make it sell lots and lots of movie tickets, I am going to do my part on this blog.

For starters, I am going to give away a signed official "Rio" movie poster, signed by the entire Blue Sky Studios Fur Department!

Yep, we are the bestest department in this entire company! Speaking of our company, ever see any of the "Ice Age" movies? That is us as well!

My role on the film was to figure out how to groom all of the birds efficiently AND I got the honor of grooming the feathers and fur onto Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway), the two main bird characters in the movie. It was an 18 month long project to groom just the two birds! Tedious work you ask? Yeppers! But it was worth it as they came out VERY beautiful in the end.

So you wanna win this awesome signed poster? Its easy! Leave me a comment saying you want it!

Want a better chance of winning it? Head on over to Rio's official Facebook page and "Like" the movie. Lemme know you liked it via a second comment....

Want an even better chance of winning it? Spread the word! Post this on your blog or twitter and lemme know you did via a third comment.

Want an even better better chance of winning it? Become a follower! (look over to the right--------)

So four chances to win this signed official "Rio" poster. How much better can it get?!?! I am leaving the entry open until Friday March 18th.

The movie is spectacular! Hope you go see it on APRIL 15th! Look for my name, Jon Campbell, in the credits under the Fur Department. Thanks!